This invention relates generally to the handling and disposal of hazardous materials, and more particularly to the treatment and cleaning-up of hazardous material spills.
Hundreds of millions of tons of hazardous materials are moved throughout the United States of highways and railroads. The consequences are severe whenever an accident of any kind causes a spill of these materials. In recent years, increased production, and resulting transportation, of these hazardous materials have increased the number of accidental spills. Accidental spills have become a growing problem for every industry in terms of staggering clean-up costs, and the long and short term costs to the environment and to humans.
Hazardous materials have been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency on the basis of ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity. Federal and local regulatory agencies require safeguards to be used in the handling of materials classified as hazardous.
Unlike a spill at a fixed site, such as a manufacturing facility, where the constant presence of hazardous materials and the potential for an accident are everyday facts of life, a transportation spill can occur almost anywhere at any time. Known techniques for the clean-up of transportation spills of hazardous material generally have involved either the flushing away of the material, which can cause considerable environmental damage, or in the isolation of the material by the use of an absorbent or similar material. The actual removal is commonly done by manual techniques using brushes, scoops, shovels and the like. These techniques are very inefficient and require large amounts of properly trained personnel, which skilled labor is not always readily available. A primary drawback of using absorbent materials, and the like, is that these materials add considerably to the quantity of material to be subsequently disposed of in a manner required by regulatory agencies. This increase in quantity substantially adds to the cost of disposal. Another problem encountered with the use of absorbent materials is that the absorption process is reversible, which does not comply with recent changes in regulations governing hazardous waste disposal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,978, issued Mar. 25, 1980, to E. Crema, discloses a method and apparatus for removing solid and/or liquid matter containing harmful substances from the ground or other surfaces. In this arrangement, water is circulated onto the hazardous material for diluting same and is then drawn up by a vacuum arrangement into a holding tank on an associated vehicle. The recovered hazardous material is separated from the circulating water. This technique is very limited in applicability, since each hazardous material must be treated in a precise manner to comply with applicable regulations, and to assure the most efficient disposal of the waste.